A Coach Asks

Some Ideas

I don't coach possession soccer as an isolated part of the game, and don't suggest that
other coaches make it a solitary critical focus either, at least to the exclusion
of other attacking topics that lead to scoring goals. As you go forward in youth
coaching into team tactics, possession as a separate topic may not be as
valuable a soccer training topic as combination play and individual attacking tactics
which take the skills and tactics needed to play possession and put them
into a game that has direction and goes to goal. In other words,
possession is a good capability but it should be used with other abilities to attack the
opponent's goal.

At the team level, the game of soccer is very simple. The
attacking team tries to change the point of attack faster than the
defending team can change its defending shape to get pressure on the
ball. If the attacking team succeeds, it can play the ball into
space behind the defense, go to goal, and get a shot.

Nowhere in this game is pure possession sufficient, by itself, to win
games. Possession
by itself does not have a direction and there is no way to translate
possession into shots and goals. Lots of teams have most of the
possession but don't get the goals. Possession, as a topic, seems
insufficient. Although changing the point of attack requires
possession, it overlooks attacking against pressure, actually taking
defenders on or using combination play to get behind defenders.
Possession leading to more possession is not productive. Possession
leading to changing the point of attack, creating isolations, creating
passing angles, and making goal scoring opportunities is useful.

I recommend that you limit possession exercises to those needed to
teach speed of play (including body shape, creating passing angles, and
providing quick support), and that you move quickly to exercises that have
direction and go to goal. It may be best to teach attacking and to
teach defending to win the ball to attack.